Zika virus: 2.2 billion people in 'at risk' areas

More than two billion people live in parts of the world where the Zika virus can spread, detailed maps published in the journal eLife show.

The Zika virus, which is spread by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, triggered a global health emergency this year.

Last week the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that the virus causes severe birth defects.

The latest research showed mapping Zika was more complex than simply defining where the mosquito can survive.

One of the researchers, Dr Oliver Brady from the University of Oxford, told the BBC: "These are the first maps to come out that really use the data we have for Zika - earlier maps were based on Zika being like dengue or chikungunya.

"We are the first to add the very precise geographic and environmental conditions data we have on Zika."

By learning where Zika could thrive the researchers could then predict where else may be affected. The researchers confirmed that large areas of South America, the focus of the current outbreak, are susceptible. 

In total, 2.2 billion people live in areas defined as being "at risk". 

The infection is suspected of leading to thousands of babies being born with underdeveloped brains.

The at-risk zones in South America include long stretches of coastline as well as cities along the Amazon river and its tributaries snaking through the continent.

And in the US, Florida and Texas could sustain the infection when temperatures rise in summer. 

Dr Brady added: "Mosquitoes are just one condition needed for Zika to spread but there's a whole range of other ones.

"It needs to be warm enough for Zika to replicate inside the mosquito and for there to be a large enough [human] population to transmit it."

Both Africa and Asia have large areas that could be susceptible to the virus, the researchers said.

However, the study cannot answer why large numbers of cases have not already been reported.

One possible explanation is that both continents have already had large numbers of cases and the populations there have become largely immune to the virus. 

An alternative is that cases could be being misdiagnosed as other infections such as dengue fever or malaria.

Europe seems likely to be unaffected, but that could change as more evidence emerges on which mosquitoes the viruses can spread in.

Former American professional WWE wrestler and porn star Chyna dies aged 45

Former professional WWE wrestler and porn star, Chyna, has died aged 45.

Her manager confirmed the news on her Twitter page.

"It is with deep sadness to inform you today that we lost a true icon, a real life superhero," said a message. "She will live forever in the memories of her millions of fans and all of us that loved her."

Chyna was found dead at her home in Redondo Beach, California, after returning home recently from Japan.

Police say they were responding to an emergency call from one of Chyna's friends when they found her dead in her flat. 

Redondo Beach Police said in a statement that the friend had gone to check on Chyna after she had failed to answer her phone for a few days. 

The friend told an emergency services operator that the former wrestler wasn't breathing.

Earlier this week she posted a 13-minute YouTube video in which she talks about trying to set up a fresh food business.

Chyna appears to slur some of her words and at times looks muddled.

She struggled with addiction throughout her career and appeared on Celebrity Rehab in 2008 with Dr Drew.

Chyna, whose real name was Joan Laurer, will be remembered as one of the most successful female wrestlers of all time.

In 1999 she competed at the Royal Rumble and King of the Ring.

She was also the first woman to be considered the number one contender to the WWF Championship, as it was known then (WWF was renamed WWE in 2002).

She was a member of the wrestling squad that called itself D-Generation X and was known as the "Ninth Wonder of the World".

Chyna was the women's champion until she was released by WWE in 2001.

She beat several prominent male wrestlers - including multiple world champions Chris Jericho, Triple H, Jeff Jarrett and Kurt Angle.

She was named last year as one of the most impactful women ever in the sport.

After leaving wrestling, Chyna appeared in Playboy Magazine twice before appearing on several reality TV shows including The Surreal Life in 2005.Chyna then went into the porn business making six films between 2004 and 2013, including 1 Night in China (a sex tape recorded with her ex, WWE star Sean Waltman) and Avengers XXX: A Porn Parody.

After leaving pornography, she became an English teacher in Japan and went vegan.

Mitsubishi Raided As Shares Crash Further

Offices of Mitsubishi Motors have been raided in Japan and its share price has dived for a second day after the company admitted faking fuel economy tests on some of its cars.

Officials from the Japanese transport ministry entered the research and development centre in Nagoya and a number of other buildings in the country as investors fled Mitsubishi's stock.

Shares were down more than 20% on Thursday after losing 15% in the previous session.

It meant about $2.5bn (£1.74bn) had been wiped from its market value in just two days.

Wednesday's decline took place before the company confirmed reports about its misconduct.

After the markets closed, it admitted 157,000 of its own brand eK Wagon and eK Space models and 468,000 vehicles produced for Nissan were affected by the cheating.

Nissan, the company said, had alerted it to discrepancies in fuel efficiency readings and its internal investigation had identified methods used to give a false impression of a model's fuel economy.

Mitsubishi said all 625,000 cars were built since mid-2013 and sold in the Japanese market only.

The Nissan-branded vehicles involved were the Dayz and Roox models.

The announcement represented another scandal for an industry still reeling from the fallout of the diesel emissions cheating at VW - due to reach court in the US later on Thursday.

Mitsubishi said it still had avenues to investigate over whether its fuel economy cheating was more widespread than first thought.

The company has been no stranger to scandal in the past.

In 2004 it teetered on the edge of bankruptcy amid a series of huge recalls linked to a cover-up on historic defects including failing brakes and faulty clutches.

Lloyds To Axe Hundreds Of Jobs In Latest Cull

Britian's biggest high street bank is to axe hundreds more jobs in the latest phase of a restructuring that will see 10% of its workforce culled by the end of next year.

Sky News understands that Lloyds Banking Group plans to inform staff later today that approximately 300 roles are to go - out of a total of 9,000 earmarked by senior executives under a three-year plan.

The location of the affected staff was unclear, although the announcement will come amid a brutal environment for big banks, with bosses complaining of tough market conditions and subdued levels of client activity.

Major lenders including Barclays and HSBC are also engaged in substantial job-cutting programmes, while the taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) said last week it would close dozens of NatWest branches and axe 600 jobs.

Lloyds, which is 9%-owned by taxpayers, is expected to be well insulated from the sharp declines in revenues reported by Wall Street banks in the last week because of its focus on retail and business lending.

Antonio Horta-Osorio, Lloyds' chief executive, said 18 months ago that the rise in digital consumption of banking services was a key driver of changing headcount needs.

Roughly 5,600 of the 9,000 affected jobs have already been cut.

A Lloyds spokesman said it "would not comment on future announcements – colleagues would always be informed first".

George Osborne, the Chancellor, wants to offer billions of pounds of discounted Lloyds shares to ordinary investors later this year, although the timing of a sale - already delayed once because of market conditions - has yet to be finalised.

The latest wave of job cuts will increase to well beyond 50,000 the total number of jobs shed by Lloyds since it rescued HBOS, the stricken mortgage lender, during the 2008 financial crisis.

An official inquiry into HBOS's failure last year laid the blame at the door of the bank's management and board, with regulators continuing to pursue regulatory sanctions against those deemed culpable.

The Government initially held a 43% stake in Lloyds but has reduced that to just under 9%, generating more than £16bn in proceeds, against the original £20.5bn capital injection.

That return has come despite the bank having to set aside more than £16bn for the mis-selling of payment protection insurance - by far the largest sum of any UK lender.

Elite Force To Hunt El Salvador Gang Bosses

A new, heavily armed elite force is targeting 100 gang bosses who have wreaked havoc in one of the world's deadliest countries.

El Salvador is ranked as the most dangerous nation not at war, with 104 murders per 100,000 of the population.

The Special Reaction Force will go after gang bosses hiding out in rural areas and in the Central American country's cities.

The unit is made up of 600 army commandos and 400 elite police.

Helicopters and armoured trucks will be used to help track down the kingpins and bring down their criminal operations.

Gang bosses already behind bars have recently been targeted by a new law that limits their movements and family visits, and blocks mobile phone signals from prison.

Some of the main gangs called a halt to murders to try to stop the government's action, but authorities are determined to round up the ringleaders.

"We cannot yield to those who scorn life. We cannot yield to those who scorn the law and who, irrationally, every day, take the lives of children, of youths, of families," said President Ortiz.

Much of El Salvador's chronic violence is blamed on criminals deported from the US in the 1990s.

America is giving $750m (£523m) in aid to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala to help them improve security and deter their citizens from fleeing illegally to the States.

Between them, the three small "Northern Triangle" countries recorded some 17,000 murders in 2015.

Queen has been 'rock of strength for our nation', says PM

The Queen has been "a rock of strength for our nation" and the Commonwealth, Prime Minister David Cameron has said in a tribute to mark her 90th birthday.

The Prince of Wales has recorded a special radio broadcast for the day, in which he reads an edited passage from William Shakespeare's Henry VIII. 

Celebrations get under way later as the Queen takes part in a walkabout in Windsor and lights a symbolic beacon.

A photograph of the monarch with young Royal Family members has been released.

The image, one of three taken by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz, shows the Queen surrounded by her five great-grandchildren and her two youngest grandchildren.

Gun salutes take place around the UK starting from noon, while the prime minister is expected to lead tributes to Britain's longest serving monarch in the Commons.

The reading by Prince Charles, to be broadcast by the BBC later, is an extract from a speech by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer to King Henry VIII after the birth of the future Queen Elizabeth I. 

'Steadfast'

Mr Cameron is expected to say: "Her Majesty The Queen has lived through some extraordinary times in our world.

"From the Second World War to the rations with which she bought the material for her wedding dress. 

"From presenting the World Cup to England at Wembley in 1966 to man landing on the moon three years later.

"From the end of the Cold War to peace in Northern Ireland. 

"Throughout it all, as the sands of culture shift and the tides of politics ebb and flow, Her Majesty has been steadfast - a rock of strength for our nation, for our Commonwealth and on many occasions for the whole world." 

The other Leibovitz photographs show the monarch walking in the grounds of Windsor Castle with four of her dogs and sitting with her daughter, the Princess Royal.

The image of the Queen with the young royals was taken in the Green Drawing Room, part of Windsor Castle's semi-State apartments just after Easter.

In it, the Queen - in the tradition of royal portraiture - holds her youngest great-grandchild Princess Charlotte, who is 11 months old, in her arms.

Also appearing in the image is two-year-old Prince George, Zara Phillips's two-year-old daughter Mia Tindall, who holds the Queen's famous black handbag, and Peter Phillips's daughters Savannah, five, and three-year-old Isla.

The Queen is also joined by the two youngest of her eight grandchildren - the Earl and Countess of Wessex's children - James, Viscount Severn, eight, and Lady Louise Windsor.

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Queen's 90th: What's happening and when?

• 21 April - The Queen will unveil a plaque on Windsor's Queen's Walkway, before lighting the first of a chain of beacons. Gun salutes will also be held across the UK
• 12-15 May - Celebrations featuring hundreds of horses and performers in the grounds of Windsor Castle
• 10 June - A national service of thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral
• 11 June - The annual Trooping the Colour at Horse Guards Parade
• 12 June - The Queen will host a street party for 10,000 people in the Mall                      The monarch's birthday celebrations get under way later with a walkabout in Windsor.
  Accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, she will unveil a plaque marking The Queen's Walkway - a 6.3km trail that links 63 significant points in Windsor.
  The trail was designed to recognise the moment the monarch broke the record on 9 September 2015 held by her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria by being on the throne for 63 years and seven months.
  Royal gun salutes will be fired from each of the UK's capital cities and at other authorised stations across the UK.
  Most of the salutes will be 21 guns in length - the standard royal gun salute - and will be held at locations including Hillsborough Castle, Cardiff Castle, and Edinburgh Castle. 
  In London, the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery will stage a 41-gun salute at midday in Hyde Park. And the Honourable Artillery Company will fire a 62-gun salute across the Thames from the Tower of London at 13:00 BST.

  Birthday cake

  In the evening the Queen will be accompanied by Prince Philip, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, as she lights the first of more than 900 beacons across the UK and the world to mark her birthday. 
  Members of the Army cadet force will take beacons to the top of the highest peaks of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
  Some of the beacons will be specially-built gas-fuelled structures, while others will be traditional bonfires or braziers on top of tall wooden posts. 
  The monarch will also be presented with a birthday cake at the Guildhall by the Great British Bake Off champion Nadiya Hussain, who has baked an orange drizzle cake with a butter cream and marmalade filling.
  To coincide with the Queen's birthday, the largest exhibition of the Queen's clothes and accessories ever shown in Scotland will open at the Palace of Holyroodhouse later.
  The display has been selected to cover the Queen's life and reign and includes evening and day wear.
  On Friday, US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will be joining the Queen for lunch at Windsor Castle.
  The Queen each year celebrates two birthdays, with her actual birthday on 21 April and her official birthday on a Saturday in June. 
  Celebrations of her official birthday this year take place from 10-12 June.

Papal Blessing Brings New Life For Refugees

Under an early summer sun in the Vatican City, Pope Francis appeared for his weekly audience, with the usual faithful clamouring to get close to him.

In a small courtyard not far away we found three families from a different faith who have already had their papal moment - one which has transformed their lives.

A week ago they were in a refugee detention centre in Greece. Now they have a new life in Rome after being chosen by the Pope to be relocated to Italy.

Outside the language centre where they have already begun their Italian lessons, we met two-year-old Riyad with his mother, Nour Essa, and father Hassan.

Nour Essa was a micro-biologist in Syria until the outbreak of the civil war. Hassan was a landscape gardener: normal people with normal lives, they told me.

The shock at being told they could leave the camp and go to Rome was overwhelming.